Duke Behnke's Q&A: How often are Winnebago County aerial photos updated and how much does it cost?

Apr. 6, 2013

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Post-Crescent Media

Q: How often are the aerial photos updated for the Winnebago County Geographical Information System, and how much does it cost?

A: Winnebago County hires a company to take high-resolution aerial photographs of the county’s 15 towns about every five years. The last photographs were taken in 2009 by AeroMetric of Sheboygan.

The digital photography is done in late March or early April after the snow melts and before the trees leaf out. It also can be done in late October or early November after the leaves fall and before snow arrives.

“We do that so we can see through the trees,” said Dave Levine, a geographical information specialist for the county. “You’ll see aerial photography out on Google that’s all plush and green, but you’ll notice that you can’t really see many of the structures because they’re covered up with tree canopy.”

Winnebago County budgets $45,000 to $50,000 to photograph the unincorporated areas of the county. The photography for the incorporated areas costs another $45,000 to $50,000 and is the responsibility of the respective cities and villages. The work typically is coordinated as a single project to reduce costs.

Levine said the county plans to take new photographs in 2015.

The Winnebago County GIS has been in place since 1994. The website www.co.winnebago.wi.us/gis allows the public to search for aerial photographs of neighborhoods or individual properties, but the photographs are of lower quality than the high-resolution images available in the county’s GIS office.

The website also provides information on the dimensions of a property, the owner, assessed value, school district, etc. It even has aerial photographs dating to 1941.

Levine said savvy outdoorsmen use the website to identify the owner of potential hunting grounds or to find prime fishing areas.

“They actually can see where boats have congregated along the Wolf River and the lakes to see where some fishing hot spots might be,” he said.

The website received more than 110,000 hits during the past three years.